There are safety regulations and standards that all motor vehicles have to adhere to before deemed safe for use on public roads and if you are caught driving a vehicle that doesn’t meet these requirements you can be fined as you could be endangering peoples lives. Here are some things that different motor vehicles should have checked and fixed if need be before going to get their car or motorcycle serviced:

Motorcycles – The lights; of the 22% failure rate on bike MOT tests, over half of these are for defective lighting. Although this is a very high figure for one small defect that is easily detectable before you go to have the vehicle serviced. The requirements are simple, and it’s quite straightforward to replace or adjust the lighting, without the need of a professional mechanic.

Head light and Tail lights, these must be free of chips or cracks on the casing; the headlight must also work on main and dip beam properly, the main beam must shine directly ahead and the dip slightly lower and to the left hand side.

Indicators, must all flash at a steady rate and the warning lights should function properly. If a hazard warning system is installed on your bike, all 4 indicators must flash at a steady uniform rate together.

Reflector, bikes must have a red reflector on the rear of the machine, either bolted on separately or as part of the tail light lens.

Another check to be done is of the tyres as these are the requirements;

• Cast wheels should be secure and free from cracks, similarly, you should check wheels with spoke’s for broken, rusted, loose or bent spokes.
• The tyre and wheel must turn free in free-wheel nor must they be touching the suspension or the mudguards at any point.
• Worn wheel bearings will fail and the front and rear wheels will be checked for alignment, so be sure to have new ones fitted before your servicing if you feel they may be worn.
• Tyres must be compatible, suitable for road use and, if fitted with a direction arrow, fitted to spin in the direction of forward wheel rotation as shown by the arrow.
• Tyres will be checked for tread depth and condition as well as sidewall condition, so if your tyres are worn down and the tread not so deep you may be best to invest in some new tyres as the tread is one of the main factors in keeping your bike under control, especially in bad weather.

There are a large number of things that are assessed in a cars MOT testing here are some examples of what will be tested when you take your car in for servicing:

• Brakes
• Wheels and tyres
• Steering
• Lights
• Seat belts
• Doors
• Registration plate
• Vehicle identification number

So its important for you to keep all these parts functioning correctly because not only will they be checked when you take your vehicle in to be serviced most of the parts being checked are for your safety and other road users.